"With his appointment effective 21 October 1861, Ezra Pray was designated an “acting assistant surgeon” and ordered to report to the U.S. Bark Fernandina in New York City, where he arrived a week before that ship was commissioned on 16 November 1861. ... Pray’s 154-page journal begins with his application for appointment in September and his service in Fernandina from November through 18 April 1862; however, he actually began to write his account in late January through early February 1862, using the ship’s official logbook to remind himself of the key events of his first few months on board." The journal goes on to cover blockade duty, and a possible mutiny.

The nonprofit Naval Historical Foundation (NHF) purchased, photographed, transcribed and donated the original journal to BUMED's Office of Medical History in 2012. 

See more at: http://www.navyhistory.org/2012/02/civil-war-journal-surgeon-ezra-pray/